Student Government and Open Textbooks: The Student Perspective

Author Biography

  • Jovana Hanna, CSU Student and SGA Senator
  • Samia Shaheen, CSU Student and SGA President
  • Danielle Mihalcea, CSU Student and SGA Senator

Jovana Hanna is an undergraduate sophomore pre-med student majoring in Biology and Health Sciences with a minor in Chemistry. She is a Cleveland Clinic volunteer, the Undergraduate Science Senator for Student Government, a member of the American Medical Student Association, a Sunday School Teacher, a research intern, a member of the National Society of Leadership and Success, a tutor for Organic Chemistry, a member of the Open Education Resource committee, and a medical scribe. The research projects she has been involved in have focused on electrochemistry, breast cancer and biofilms. She has also presented her summer research findings through the undergraduate summer research program as Cleveland State. She has a great interest in increasing the awareness of open textbooks to faculty, staff and students at Cleveland State. Through student government, she is currently working on a project entitled, “The Textbook Hero Award,” which will be presented to 2 faculty or staff members who have written their own textbook and distributed it for free to their students or have used open textbooks in their classroom. Its goal is to increase the awareness of open textbooks and to also encourage professors to write their own textbooks and distribute that for free to their students. Her passions include music, swimming and hiking.

Samia Shaheen is a fourth year student majoring in International Relations and Political Science. She is a student of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Honors College. Samia is currently serving as President of the Student Government Association. Of the numerous campus issues she works on, textbook affordability and open access textbooks are her passion. During these past few months, she has collaborated with students, faculty, and staff in increasing awareness on textbook costs and alternatives to save students money each semester. She will be attending the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law next fall, and hopes to pursue a career in public service. Samia is a former intern of Senator Sherrod Brown, and just recently completed a summer internship on Capitol Hill for Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur. CSU was Samia’s first choice for its celebrated diversity, ideal location, and active mission to support student success!

Danielle Mihalcea (pronounced Me-Hall-Cha)is a junior double majoring in international relations and political science, as well as a student in the 4+1 Master’s in Global Interactions program. She has been in Student Government for the past two years. This past year she served as the Director of Academic Affairs, mainly focusing on the Open Textbook Initiative. Danielle has worked closely with CSU librarian Amanda Goodsett, and was able to facilitate an event for students on February 28th in the Michael Schwartz Library to inform students on Open Textbook and how they can be more involved. This initiative is important to Danielle because as a student, she knows how stressful it is to worry about the costs of textbooks on top of other expenses. She believes students should have one less worry on their backs, that way their focus can be on succeeding in their education and learn in the most efficient way. Aside from school, she is an editorial intern at the Cleveland Magazine. After graduation, she hopes to gain experience in the workforce, potentially writing for a magazine or newspaper on human rights issues – leading up to the further future, hoping to dedicate time in public service and run for office.

Program Type

Short Presentation (30 minutes)

Start Date and Time

8-3-2019 11:45 AM

End Date and Time

8-3-2019 12:15 PM

Location

Moot Courtroom, LB 101

Comments

The SGA Panel Discussion portion of the recording runs from 00:35:35 through 1:08:25. It includes an introduction by Maggie Kiel-Morse, Reference Librarian, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, and is moderated by Marsha Miles, Head, Collections and Digital Initiatives, Michael Schwartz Library.

Closed Captioning is available in the streaming video below. If this video is not streaming, please go to https://youtu.be/vbqLATeeuXI.

The recording, including the slides, can be viewed if you click "Link to Recording" in the upper right of this page

OpenCon 2019 Cleveland

Recorded 3/8/2019

Streaming Media

Link to Recording

Share

 
COinS
 
Mar 8th, 11:45 AM Mar 8th, 12:15 PM

Student Government and Open Textbooks: The Student Perspective

Moot Courtroom, LB 101